Interactive systems connected by wide area networks, such as the Internet, have steadily evolved into vibrant mediums for social interaction and accessing digital media. Streaming media refers to multimedia content that is constantly received by, and normally displayed to, one or more end-users while it is being delivered by the provider. Multimedia streams can be provided live or on-demand. Some network providers host live streaming events where users may perceive streaming multimedia content, such as audio and video, and simultaneously view comments submitted by a subset of the users. These live streaming events, together with the recorded comments, can also be re-played on-demand.
In addition, a number of on-line systems have emerged that allow users to upload, share and edit multimedia content, such as YouTube®, and Yahoo!'s Jumpcut network-based video upload and editing service. In addition, collaborative video annotation systems are known. Video annotation systems, for example, allow a user to add text as metadata to a video segment. Video annotation systems can also be used to record reactions to, or descriptions of, events embodied in the video. Video annotation systems can be used, for example, to describe the football play or action corresponding to various segments of a video.